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May 19, 2010

G41: Red Sox 3, Twins 2

Buchholz, armed with a terrific changeup and slider, pitched eight strong innings (8-5-2-1-7, 104), David Ortiz hit a two-run home run that survived the umpires' review, Bill Hall added a key insurance run by lining the third of three two-out singles in the sixth, and a slightly-shaky Daniel Bard recorded his first save of the year.

Only three of Buchholz's 24 outs were recorded outside of the infield (the last out in the second and the first two batters in the third). Victor Martinez singled twice and was on base when Flo launched his 8th dong. Adrian Beltre also had two hits and scored a run.

Tampa Bay beat the Yankees 10-6 and now lead the East by 4 games. The Red Sox remain 8.5 GB. The Blue Jays are in Seattle.

With runners on base, the Red Sox and their opponents have similar OBP and SLG, but Boston is batting only .269 to its opponents' .281.

OBP from Batting Order Spot

BOS OPP#2 .377 .282#3 .289 .359

Also at 7: Rays at Yankees. Tampa Bay (who might notget J.P. Howell back this season, not that his absence has slowed them down so far) is 3 GA of the MFY and 8.5 GA of the Sox. I don't want to fall any further behind, so I guess that means I'd like the Rays to lose both of their games in the Bronx.

Dan Graziano writes that the Rays-Yankees series might be "between the best two teams in baseball", but the Red Sox and Yankees "still have the market cornered on crazy, as they proved by packing a week's worth of eventful baseball insanity into the past two nights".

I don't have a coded message for everything, you know! I looked at #1 and the Sox were about 30 points lower than their opponents. That was interesting, but then I looked and saw the huge differences here. And copied it in.

(Hey...you have probably already realized this, but there is something wrong with comments, at least on this thread. On the front page, this game thread shows as having almost 50 comments. When I clicked that link, I was seeing just 9 comments, until a few minutes ago - now 18.)